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SS7, Helena North II: Nip and tuck

Marcus Gronholm took the lead of Rally Australia when the event first went through Helena North earlier on Friday morning, and as Leg 1 nears its conclusion, the Finn again took command as erstwhile leader Colin McRae fell back slightly

Gronholm finished third on the rerun through the 24.14km Helena North test, but with McRae finishing five seconds back from the Peugeot driver, Gronholm takes a four-second advantage into the penultimate proper stage of the leg.

Gronholm's team mate Didier Auriol was the pacesetter on SS7, completing the test in 13m29.4s. Less than a second behind the Frenchman was fired up (pun intended) Spaniard Carlos Sainz.

His Ford Focus was in flames after SS6, following his scrape with a post. His mechanics managed to make repairs to his car in service, but he incurred a 1m30s penalty in the process. Sainz is now well down the classification, over three minutes behind the leaders.

Richard Burns moves up to second overall after setting the fourth fastest time in his Subaru, with adversary McRae a further two seconds back. The Scot has a two-second lead over Harri Rovanpera in the battle for third place overall following the Finn's sixth fastest time on the stage.

The second Subaru of Petter Solberg was seventh fastest, followed by joint championship leader Tommi Makinen in the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC.

Ford's other casualty Francois Delecour recovered from his fiery mishap, also on SS6, to post the ninth fastest time, with his compatriot Gilles Panizzi in the Peugeot rounding out the top 10.

For full times from SS7, click here.

For full rally live timings, click here.

For rally itinerary, click here.

For full entry list, click here.

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